CQC reports and registration

Measuring quality of patient care

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of healthcare and social care services in England. It makes sure that hospitals, care homes, dental and doctors' surgeries and other care services in England provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality healthcare.

By inspecting medical services, and publishing the information, the CQC helps people make better decisions about the healthcare they receive.

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is required to register with the CQC. We gained fully compliant status in April 2010.

Improving patient care at the Royal Free London: the role of the CQC

The CQC places quality of healthcare at the centre of its system.

The quality standards of the CQC are translated into expected ‘outcomes’. The outcomes describe hospital quality and patient safety as viewed from the perspective of the people using our medical services.

CQC inspection programme

The new CQC hospital inspections involve significantly larger inspection teams than CQC has used in the past. The teams – called inspection panels – include doctors, nurses and other experts and trained members of the public. They cover eight key services areas in every site that delivers acute services: